Movie Review of The Odyssey: title read, movie not seen

What’s with starting “into the middle of things” (Latin: in medias res)? It is crazy, right? Who would do that (except all the movies that do that)? Who would do that enough over multiple millennia so that people over centuries would have to come up with an entire phrase about it, am I right? This is madness. What is Nolan thinking?

Why would anyone make a disjointed and confusing trip home be, I don't know, confusing, or disjointed? Just let the poor guy get home. Five minute film. We're good. Shouldn’t stories be about destinations and not the journeys?

Why is it even about his trip, like, should it even be about a̶n̶ O̶d̶y̶s̶s̶e̶y̶ a journey and should it even focus o̶n̶ O̶d̶y̶s̶s̶e̶u̶s̶ on the one who takes a journey at all?

Doesn’t Nolan know what words mean?

Like, why make it a journey over water? Why not choose some sort of symbolism of the shifting and the hidden, of the dangerous and life sustaining, of things readily apparent and also lost beneath a surface, peril and peace, and why not have the water be sexual metaphors: for sexuality itself and connection during a journey from a war back home to his beloved wife who has been embattled by suitors, and instead do this??

And maybe he could, I don't know, make this more than just a white guy's story? Would have helped make it clear that the themes and events have resonated thousands of years because (even though it is the product and part of the canon of one culture) it can be meaningful and enjoyed by anyone. Would that have been too much to ask? Even just a hat tip to the universally human experience here.

Couldn’t Nolan have had some sense of justice visit his main character? Like after Odysseus comes up with the lie that allows the Greeks to breach both their own innate need to be hospitable to others, but also the very walls of Troy, and he does it through trickery and lies, finally bringing the drawn out stalled war to a conclusion, doesn’t he owe something. Like couldn't he owe a difficult trek during which he is lied to? And shouldn’t he lose something along the way? But instead his men all get killed and he is what, transformed by a journey that is part self rediscovery and part penance? I wanted a character arc, not this wading from obstacle to obstacle, seeing how step by step he is remade.

Like at least Nolan could have him lose a truly devoted best friend. And what’s with the dog? Why have him die right when Odysseus gets home? Could Nolan not have fit in how nature itself (and our connection to it, our domestication of it) finds closure even if such closure is heartbreaking to us? There wasn't room for something like that in a nearly three hour movie?

And why not have his wife be a final challenge Odysseus must encounter, understand and re-embrace to find again: remembrance, truth and authenticity. Why not have them both need to confront and process through their own illusions about their romantic partners before they can reconnect through love? Instead Nolan just has her test if it is he’s really him, and he goes after the suitors?

What, no release of ten years angst? Like what about having the long-building and built up fear, pain, grief and rage spill over in some integration of his true self, his dark side and authentic love revealing the final changes he has undergone instead of this combination of, what, his isolation, shadow self and anima into a new Odysseus that has, finally, changed, and in so doing earned his way home? Come on now.

I am looking forward to seeing the movie though.

© Copyright July 27, 2026, David August, all rights reserved davidaugust.com

David August is an award-winning actor, acting coach, writer, director, and producer. He plays a role in the movie Dependent’s Day, and after its theatrical run, it’s now out on Amazon (affiliate link). He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, on the TV show Ghost Town, and many others. His artwork has been used and featured by multiple writers, filmmakers, theatre practitioners, and others to express visually. Off-screen, he has worked at ad agencies, start-ups, production companies, and major studios, helping them tell stories their customers and clients adore. He has guest lectured at USC’s Marshall School of Business about the Internet.